He delivered my order to her, then turned to me, signing,“Lemonade?”
I nodded and he spoke to the woman again. After he paid and we found a table someone vacated that one of the staff members cleaned, we took our seats and his hands were moving again.
“Sorry about that.”
I arched a brow.“One of your exes?”
His body tensed when he stiffly shook his head.“Someone who wants attention I won’t give.”
“Ended badly?”I probably didn’t have the right to question him, but the jealousy pooling in the pit of my stomach wouldn’t allow me not to.
His eyes locked on me and his jaw flexed under his beard.“She’s married; so there was no start to end badly. When I found out, I shut it down and she got pissed.”
“Is her husband one of the team owners and the reason they’re considering trading you?”
His brows slammed in, then he laughed dryly.“I forgot you can read lips.”
I smirked.“You shouldn’t if you don’t want me knowing your personal business.”
Ryland chuckled and signed,“Yes, she’s married to Karl Bashay. Sharks’ owner, and it’s really fucked up too because his wife has pretty much gone through half the roster.”
“Well, that’s a new spin on team bonding.”
He snorted.“Cute but not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
He hit me with a glare and I smiled.“The trade is not about your poor timing coming off the line. It’s because the owner’s wife wants to have sex with you.”
“As fucked up as it is, yeah. And to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t interested. I respect people’s marriages, even if they don’t. I’m not that reckless.”
I didn’t know whether he was telling the truth, but based on the frustration in his expression and tension in his body, I believed him. Ryland was an attractive and very wealthy pro athlete. I wouldn’t criticize or judge him for doing exactly what rich athletes were notorious for. A part of me still felt a knot of jealousy twisting in my stomach.
“Can they really do that? Trade you for personal reasons? Don’t they, like, have to adhere to contractual obligations or standards the same as you?”
“They do but they can spin shit however they want. I’ve had a lot of fuck ups that brought bad press to the team. Even if it was about me, I’m a reflection of the franchise. They’re telling my agent it’s about the ethics clause, but someone gave her a heads up on what was really going on behind the scenes. Truthfully, they can do whatever they want without explaining or receiving consequences, but Sovoya is working on it. She goes to war for her clients, so I’m gonna be straight.”
“You have a female agent?”My eyes rolled.
“And publicist. Shit, my media consultant is a woman too. Makari, actually, but I have not and will never cross lines with any of them. I don’t shit where I eat.”
“That’s not the truth though, is it? You almost had sex with the owner’s wife.”
“Not almost because I never would have agreed. She propositioned me, I turned her down.”He frowned hard.
“Same difference. That’s pretty much shitting where you sleep, buddy.”
Ryland snorted and looked up. I glanced over my shoulder, noticing a woman wearing a Redmond’s T-shirt heading our way with two large glasses of lemonade.
I signed thank you and Ryland interpreted, also telling her thank you. She turned her eyes on me, offering a smile with a nod before she told him she would be right back with our food.
“Okay, let me see what all the hype is about,”I signed before lifting the straw she left next to my drink. After I had it out the wrapper and in my glass, my mouth did a happy dance when the flavor hit my tongue.
“Oh, this is for sure worth the hype.”
He nodded.“You’re official now. You can’t pull up in Crescent Falls and not have Redmond’s lemonade.”
I grinned, taking another sip before signing,“This is dangerous.”